


Ink

by Clarisse (transnymphtaire)



Series: Advent Calendar 2016 [16]
Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Age Difference, Alternate Universe, Implied/Referenced Child Abuse, M/M, Soulmates
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-12-16
Updated: 2016-12-16
Packaged: 2018-09-09 02:25:49
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 807
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8872036
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/transnymphtaire/pseuds/Clarisse
Summary: You can communicate with your soulmate by writing on your skin.





	

**Author's Note:**

> If you recognise this, then it's because it's from my Tomarry AU Idea series on Tumbr.
> 
> Unbetaed.

After you turn 6, you’re supposed to be able to communicate with your soulmate by writing on your skin as the words will be mirrored on theirs.

Tom held the pen-tip hovering above his arms for five minutes, then he quickly drew a line before he could regret it. When no response of any kind showed up, he harshly washed away the pen-stripe, leaving his skin annoyed and red. He never held another pen against his skin.

Twenty years has passed since that moment, and Tom’s skin has never been anything but pristine.

Then there’s a green star drawn on his right hand with shaky lines. It looks like something a child would do, and Tom can’t help but think that perhaps his soulmate is a child. It would certainly explain why his skin has remained blank for twenty years.

He doesn’t write anything back.

The childish drawings continue, always on his right hand or arm. The lines are shaky and the colours vibrant. He catches himself smiling at them sometimes. He thought he would hate it, not being able to control what shows up on his skin and being unable to wash it away, but the reminder that the fates didn’t forget about him is nice.

When he wakes up one night to find slurs written in black with red tint on his skin, it’s not nice any more. It’s obvious that someone else has written them, and Tom find them all over his skin. _Freak_ repeats all over his back.

_Do you need help?_ Tom finds himself writing on the inside of his left elbow, his handwriting painstakingly clear and in capital letters.

He fills the words in every time they start to smudge. Days pass without any answer. The slurs remain on his skin, and he has no choice but cover them up in case his coworkers starts asking questions. He has not felt this unclean since he drew on his own skin all those years ago.

It’s as he’s about to fill in the words for the fifth day in a row that a purple _yes_ writes itself out on his right hand. As he watches, more words are written along his arm.

_My name is Harry Potter please help me_

The letters are shaky and hard to make out, but Tom reacts immediately. He is on his computer searching for any Harry Potter born six year ago within moments. It doesn’t take that long until he find a link to a newspaper article about a horrible accident leading to the death of James and Lily Potter. There’s a short mention of their son being left with the latter’s relatives, but nothing more.

Tom frowns. He can only assume that Harry is abused by his relatives, and how strange is not that? He can remember how it was at the orphanage where he grew up, but he had no relation to those children.

He hadn’t completely realised the meaning of the doodles on his skin until now. He has a soulmate, a boy that is twenty years younger than him, and this boy is living in an abusive home. If not for the last detail, Tom would have been more than happy to just look at the drawings fondly and pretend that there’s no meaning behind their appearance. The abuse has changed everything; he can’t leave an innocent child in a home like that. It’s against everything he believe in, and he believe in very few things.

_I’ll help you_. Tom writes the promise with a red pen over his right thigh, where the words can be hidden if needed. A bright yellow smiley is drawn underneath only moments later.

* * *

In a cupboard under the stairs of a house in Little Whinging, 6 year old Harry is looking at the promise on his thigh with tears running down his cheeks. He’s gripping a yellow marker stolen from school in his left hand, his knuckles white and his hand shaking. His right arm hangs uselessly by his side, twisted and thankfully numb from pain.

He never expected that anyone would respond to his doodles, and now this stranger, his _soulmate_ , is going to help him. Harry only hopes that they’ll keep the promise. They don’t have to be nice, as long as they help him.

A new message writes itself out underneath his smiley. Harry smiles as he sees it, and drops the yellow marker in favour of silencing his sobs. He can’t believe how nice his soulmate is, after being forced to wear the same ugly words that his relatives wrote on him.

_Don’t worry, Harry. Stay strong._

Harry never once considers that his soulmate might be a child just like him, he instinctively feel that whoever they are, they will be able to help him.

It’s lucky that his instincts are right.

**Author's Note:**

> Can someone please adopt this plot? I love the AU so much, but this is the only attempt I'll make at writing it.


End file.
